The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1887-10-12

. typhoid fever strikes him in the smallest
room on the fourth story Of fifth rate
boarding house, cursing God, and calling for
his mother, and fighting back demons from
his dying pillow, which is besweated and
! torn to rags, he plungss out of the world
with the shrek of destroyed spirit; Aias
for that kind Of fun! 1t IS remorse. 1t is de-
! spair 1t is blackness of blacknesa 1t is woo
unending and long reverberating, and crush.
| ing as though all the mountains OF all
! continents roll on him in one avalanche
| My soul, stand back from such fun
Young man, there is no fun in ship
| wrecking your character, no fun in dis
| fun in breaking your mothers heart There Is
no fun in the physical pangs of the dissolute.
| There is no fun In the profigate's death bed.
| There is no fun in an undone eternity.
| ParacelSus, out of tho ashes of burnt rose.
| said he could recreate the rose, but he falied
in the alchemic undertaking, and rosaate life
once burned down in sin can never again be
| made to blossom.
Oh, this plumb line of the everlasting right!
God will throw it over all our lives to show
us our moral reflections. God will throw it
over all churches to show whether they are
doing useful work or are standing instances
of idIeness and pretense. He will throw that
plumb line over all nations to demonstrate
whether their lives are just or cruel, their
infamous. He threw that plumb line over
the Spanish monarchy Of other days, and
what became OF herr Ask the splintered
hulks of her overthrown armada. He threw
that plumb line over French imperialism
and what was the result? Ask the ruins of
her Tuileries, and the fallen column of the
Place Vendome, and the grave trenches OF
Sedan, and the blood Of revolutions of differ
ent times rolling through the Champs Elysees.
He threw that plumb-line over ancient
Rome, and what became of the realm Of the
Cnsarsl Ask her war eagles, with beak
dulled and wings broken, flung helpless into
the Tiber. He threw it over the Assyrian
Empire of q thousand years, the thrones
of Semiramis, and Sardanapalus, and
Shalmaneser, of twenty-seven victorious ex-
petitions, the cities Of Ph9nicia kneeling to
the scepter. and all the world blanched in the
presence. What became Of all the grandeur?
Ask the fallen palaces Of Khorsabad and the
corpses of her lS5, 900 soldiery slain by the
angel Of the Lord in one night, and the Assyrian
sculptures of the worlds museums, all that
now remains Of that splendor before which
nations staggered and crouched. God is now
throwing that plumb line over this American
republic, and it is q solemn time with this
nation, and whether we keep His Sabbaths or
dishonor them, whether Righteousness or in
iquity dominate, whether we are Christian
or infldel, whether we fulfill our mission or
him, will decide whether we shall as ma
tion go on in higher and higher career or go
down in the same grave where Babylon, and
Nineveh, and Thebes, and Assyria are
sepulchered.
But" say you, eff there be nothing buta
plumb line what can any of us do, for there
is an old proverb which truthfully declares:
If the best mans faults were written on his
forehead it would make him pull his hat over
his eyes What shall we do when, according
to Isaiah, God shall lay Judgment to the line
and Righteousness to the plummet All,
here is where the Gospel comes in With
Saw RS Righteousness to make uD for o,lr
detiei And while I see hanging on the
wall plumb line, see also hanging there
cross. And while the one condemns US tns
other saves us, il only we Will holo 70 ~
And here and now you may be set free with
a more glorious liberty than Hampden,
or Sidney, or Kosciusko ever fought for.
Not out yonder, nor down there, nor up here,
but Just where you are you may get IL. Inc
invalid propretress of wealthy estate IN
Scotland visited the continent OF Europe to
get rid Of her maladies, and she went TO
Baden-B Baden and tried those waters, and
went to Carlsbad and tried those waters, and
went to Homburg aud tried those and
instead of getting better she got worse, and
in despair she said to physician: "What
shall do~ His reply was: Medicine can
do nothing for you. You have one chance
in the waters of Pit Keathly Scot
land" "Is it possible'" she replied; s'Why,
those waters are on my own estats!' She re-
turned. and drank of the fountain, and in
few months completely recovered. Oh sick,
and diseased, and SHINING, and dying hearer.
why go trudging all the world over, and
seeking here and there relief for your dis
couraged spirit, when close by, and at your
very feet, and at the door Of your heart, aye,
within the very estate Of your own conscious
ness, the healing waters Of eternal life may
be had, and had this very hour, this very
minute, this very Sabbath! Blessed be God
that over against the plumb line that Amos
saw is the cross, through the emancipating
power Of which you and may live and live
foreyeri